


Artist for Hire

by Brumeier



Series: Bite Sized Fic 2019 [45]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Western, Artists, Family Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 12:07:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20008030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: LJ Comment Fic for 100 Words on Pictures prompt:Stargate Atlantis, Evan Lorne +/ any, painting a portraitIn which traveling artist Evan is hired by Danny and Steve to paint a family portrait, and he spends some quality time with Grace.





	Artist for Hire

Evan was a portrait painter by trade, and a traveling man by choice. Why set up a studio with the same view out the window when he could see something new every single day? He earned his way painting portraits and landscapes, enough to pay for his next meal and to keep his painting kit filled.

Sometimes he set up in whatever space was available in town, other times he stayed with families, offering them sketches in return for room and board. The family he was rooming with currently had commissioned him for a family portrait and put him up in the tack room in the barn, which had a cot and smelled of leather and hay and horses.

Getting them all to sit together had proved problematic, not the least because the two father figures – the logistics of the family makeup were none of Evan’s business, even if he was curious – had been called away for work, so Evan was doing his initial sketches of them individually.

“Can you draw a horse?” Grace asked, sitting atop a wooden crate and doing her level best to stay still.

“I can draw anything,” Evan replied.

Nancy, who Evan understood to be the daughter of the nearest neighbor, was laundering clothes nearby to keep an eye on the little girl. 

“I don’t know when’s Danno’s birthday, but he’d like that.”

“That would make a nice gift,” Evan agreed.

“I don’t have money, but I can sew buttons.”

“That would be very nice of you, Miss Grace.” Evan didn’t have any loose buttons – he was handy with a needle and thread as well as a paintbrush – but it wouldn’t be any work to loosen a couple. “Does the horse have a name?”

“No. He already had one, but he didn’t tell Danno what it was.”

“Danno sounds like a smart man.”

Grace nodded her head just a tiny bit. “He is. He’s teaching me to read, and cook, and tie my shoes. And Daddy Steve is teaching me to make a fire and carve wood with a knife. When I’m older I can learn to shoot.”

“Ain’t nobody can teach you to stop talking,” Nancy grumbled, up to her elbows in wash water.

Evan bit back a grin. Grace was definitely not being raised with the seen-and-not-heard philosophy of child rearing. She seemed like a smart girl, and Evan wondered why she wasn’t in school. He’d seen one in town.

Grace twisted so she could talk to Nancy. “Danno says I have the right to be heard, Nancy.”

“Don’t see why I have to suffer for it,” Nancy replied.

“Sorry, Mr. Evan,” Grace said when she turned back around. “Did I mess it up?”

“Nope. Come and see.”

Grace scrambled off the crate and came around the other side of Evan’s easel. It was just a graphite sketch, but he thought he’d captured the essence of her fairly well.

“That’s me?” Grace asked, eyes wide. “You made me look pretty.”

“Because you _are_ pretty. And when I leave this will all be painted in with a lot more detail.”

“Like a ferrotype?”

“Even better,” Evan said with conviction. He wasn’t opposed to photographs, generally speaking, but they didn’t come close to capturing the depth and nuance that one of his paintings did. “Mine will have every color you can see.”

“Grace, you need to help me hang these clothes,” Nancy called out.

“Thank you, Mr. Evan,” Grace said solemnly. “I’ll come back for the buttons.”

“It’s not official until we shake on it.” 

Grace shook his hand enthusiastically before running off after Nancy.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** I was so involved in this 'verse that I started pulling in other fandoms. LOL! Evan just fits wherever I put him, and I think he'd make an excellent traveling artist. ::grins:: Plus it's fun to have more Grace, so here we are.


End file.
